Karl Friedrich’s first novel is about the women who participated in the World War II WASP (Women Air Service Pilots) program. A colorful cast of secondary characters, including a villain determined to ground our heroine, helps bring the story alive.
Here’s a post from the author explaining the origin of his interest in the topic. He worked to entertain both those with an interest in airplanes and readers who simply love a good story.
An excellent novel for teens looking to supplement their study of World War II.
FRIEDRICH, Karl. Wings: A Novel of World War II Flygirls. 291p. McBooks. Apr. 2011. Tr $23.95. ISBN 978-1-59013-570-9. LC number unavailable.
Adult/High School–Armed only with her grit, tenacity, and a talent for flying, Sally Ketchum takes the U.S. Army up on its offer to join in with other young women fliers to train on military aircraft as part of the new–and experimental–WASP program. Desperate to escape her brutal, alcoholic father, and after the loss of her mentor, flight instructor, and lover, she is determined to carve out a new life for herself as a pilot. While in training, she meets the incompetent flight instructor Beau Bayard, who irritates and angers her, but who nevertheless forces her to open her heart and create a future for herself. But as the new “flygirls” train, there are those who would see these young women fail, and one of them, a highly placed Washington lawyer, targets Sally in particular, determined to see her crash, figuratively if not literally. Despite the hardships of training, the determination of those who would have the girls grounded, and the despair of lost love, Sally perseveres to find the life she wants to have–the life she knows that she deserves. This compelling novel will appeal to teens who like a good love story with a historical context. The United States of the 1940s is well represented, and the history of the “flygirls” is a subject that many students today know little about. The lack of choices available to women of the day is clearly shown in this charming story, and it invites more investigation on the subject.–Connie Williams, Petaluma High School, CA
Today I wanted to present a book that is still up in the air for me. I read it and passed it on to John Sexton for a second opinion. He wrote the review, which gets the book exactly right — you might want to read it before continuing with my musings.
For me, the question of teen appeal is still unresolved. Pittard’s writing is wonderful. I expect this book to show up on various best of the year lists for adult readers. My issue with the book is one that comes up often when reading adult books with an eye toward teen appeal — nostalgia. The adult narrator looking back at his or her teen years, remembering. Usually, this is a turn-off for the teen reader.
Still, this could be an exception for exactly the reasons stated in the review. First and foremost, the writing. It flows so easily. Somehow, each boy’s personality comes through despite the group narration. And it has that great hook — what happened to Nora?
Obviously, I should just put this book in my library collection and monitor the reaction. In the meantime, does anyone out there know any teens who have encountered it, for better or worse?
PITTARD, Hannah. The Fates Will Find Their Way. 256p. Ecco. 2011. Tr $22.99. ISBN 978-0-06-199605-4. LC 2010009129.
Adult/High School–When she is 16, Nora Lindell vanishes. There is no body found, nor clues of an abduction, or any indication that she ran away. The boys in her class, to whom she was alluring and beautiful yet always distant and unattainable, boast unreliably about being the last to see her. They speculate endlessly about her fate. Across the following years, these small-town friends absentmindedly create their futures while they obsessively continue to fabricate scenarios that might have doomed Nora or liberated her; sent her on improbable journeys or cursed her to a lonely life. The boys collectively narrate the story in a first-person plural voice that is amusing and effective when they are in high school but goes wistfully off-key when they grow older and with nostalgia wonder about Nora even as they observe their wives and put their children to bed. They become adults but, haunted by Nora’s disappearance, they never seem to mature. Teens who appreciate the craftsmanship of a short-story writer will appreciate how adeptly Pittard has created a complex novel with such lean composition. They may be challenged by the collective narrative and the absence of an emotionally engaging main character, but they will enjoy the way the author has looked through the eyes of a group of boys to create a different approach to the high school experience.–John Sexton, formerly at Westchester Library System, NY
It is always a huge pleasure to find a fabulous thriller with teen appeal. Spiral is receiving rave reviews all around; comparisons have been made to Michael Crichton at his best. Film rights have been optioned.
And the author knows his science. Paul McEuen is the Goldwin Smith Professor of Physics at Cornell University and director of the Kavli Institute at Cornell for Nanoscale Science (from the bio on his website). His writing is based on what he knows — Spiral’s main character is a professor of nanoscience at Cornell, and the World War II strand of the plot connects to McEuen’s fascination with his grandfather’s tour of duty in the Pacific. Not to mention that all of his principal character names are based on those of his and his wife’s dogs!
MCEUEN, Paul. Spiral: A Novel. 312p. Dial. 2011. Tr $25. ISBN 978-0-385-34211-7. LC number unavailable.
Adult/High School–Generations ago, the cutting edge of science in warfare focused on who had the larger weapon, tank, or arsenal. As brilliantly depicted in Spiral, gaining the upper hand today is all about how small you can get–the combination of nanotechnology and the most devastating of biological weapons is almost impossible to defend against. Cornell science icon Liam Connor is found dead in a suspicious suicide. At first, his physicist colleague Jake Sterling is confused as to why someone would steal the MicroCrawlers–robotic miniature spiders–that he loaned to Liam for cultivating his thousands of fungi specimens. Then a madly wailing student dumped in the middle of Times Square is found with a top-secret strain of a deadly fungal infection in his bloodstream. The demand is simple: release an old World War II war criminal or the MicroCrawlers will be programmed to spread the deadly bioagent, creating an unstoppable chain reaction that will infect all humankind. Jake enlists Maggie, Liam’s granddaughter, to help him discover Liam’s connection to this biological weapon and find a way to counter it. What raises this above other suspense novels is the effortless infusion of science. The heavier stuff of biology and physics permeate the story without being condescending or overwhelming. Some blood and violence, a pitch-perfect narrative style, and plot complications that seem impossible to resolve without tragedy make for an extremely entertaining and blood-chilling thriller. McEuan’s gripping storyline and realistic characters are impossible to forget. Give this to science-oriented teens or suspense fans, and book talk it as a fictional, more modern companion to Richard Preston’s The Hot Zone.–Priscille Dando, Robert E. Lee High School, Fairfax County, VA
Rachel DeWoskin offers up a coming-of-age novel narrated by a creative, talented teenager who transitions into attending a performing arts school. Big Girl Small is also about teen sex and privacy issues in a world of ubiquitous video cameras and smartphones. Judy’s voice is smart and funny, even as she faces some dark days.
DEWOSKIN, Rachel. Big Girl Small. 292p. Farrar. 2011. Tr $25. ISBN 978-0-374-11257-8. LC number unavailable.
Adult/High School–Something terrible has happened to 16-year-old Judy Lohden. She’s holed up at the Motel Manor, hiding from her loving family and friends because what has happened is so awful that she is certain she’s ruined their lives. Judy proceeds to tell her story, beginning with the moment her father’s sperm joined her mother’s egg and produced Judy, a Little Person. A dwarf. She has always battled the world because of her differentness, but never before had to live in shame. Life changed suddenly several months earlier when she began her junior year at D’Arts, a performing arts school. For one thing, her dazzling singing voice earned her the rare honor of placement in the prestigious Senior Voice class. For another, she fell madly in love with beautiful yet enigmatic Jeff. Deep down Judy knew that losing her virginity to a guy who barely spoke to her at school was a bad idea, especially when that guy was constantly recording everything with his video camera. DeWoskin gives Judy the biting honesty of a person who is regarded by mainstream society as an oddity, combined with the heart-wrenching naiveté of a sheltered teen. She relates her story in a rush of caustic observations, wishful interpretations, and belated realizations, sweeping readers toward the final revelations, which, of course, readers have suspected all along. Once teens dive into the swift-moving flow of Judy’s narration, they will be caught until the final resolution.–Diane Colson, New Port Richey Library, FL
Cara Hoffman has written an intriguing, tangled puzzle of a novel that defies categorization, and the excitement surrounding it is contagious. It seems like every day for the last two weeks I have seen a different tweet, article, or rave for this book. It landed on Entertainment Weekly’s Must List, and is today’s #fridayreads giveaway on Twitter. Most major review sources have made special note of it, including Publishers Weekly, New York Times, Los Angeles Times, The New Yorker, and The Boston Globe.
Although this may not be an easy read for teens, it does have the potential for great appeal to tenacious readers. And there is a teenaged girl at its heart.
HOFFMAN, Cara. So Much Pretty. 304p. S & S. 2011. Tr $25. ISBN 978-1-4516-1675-0. LC 2010027852.
Adult/High School–Puzzle drama has been a very successful formula for television shows like Lost and Fringe, which depend on discretely embedded clues to make sense of confusing narratives that are often entangled with multiple perspectives. Readers familiar with such shows will be comfortable with the obscure and seemingly disjointed revelations in So Much Pretty, which begins simply enough with a missing person. Although 15-year-old Alice Piper is missing, she is not the brutally murdered young woman whose body is found at the outskirts of her upstate New York hometown. Stacy Flynn, an investigative reporter who has moved to Haeden from Cleveland applies her big-city sensibility to clues she hopes will solve the murder that locals seem too ready to blame on a drifter. But that is not the murder she clears up. There is another horrific crime that shocks Haeden, and Flynn learns who is responsible. First-time author Hoffman arrays several voices from across decades to form a kaleidoscope of clues and insights that eventually, but barely, reveal the mystery behind the murders. They also hint at a greater mystery–how each of us is blinded by self-delusion and denial to a degree that inevitably, and sometimes horribly, corrupts with righteousness our best attempt to make moral choices. As haunting and disturbing as Alice Sebold’s Lovely Bones (Little Brown, 2002), So Much Pretty will be equally provocative and unforgettable for teen readers, especially those who love solving a good puzzle.–John Sexton, formerly at Westchester Library System, NY
This humorous science fiction title mixes in mystery for natural appeal to young readers. Neve Maslakovic holds a Ph.D. from Stanford’s STAR (Space, Telecommunications, and Radioscience) Lab and is working on another science fiction novel as we speak.
MASLAKOVIC, Neve. Regarding Ducks and Universes. 331p. AmazonEncore. 2011. Tr $13.95. ISBN 978-1935597346. LC number unavailable.
Adult/High School–Reminiscent of Douglas Adams’s work, this story concerns San Francisco citizen Felix Sayers. Actually, it concerns San Francisco A citizen Felix A, since when he was six months old, the universe was “copied,” and Felix is off to San Francisco B to find his alter, Felix B. Not only is making contact with one’s alter forbidden, but two competing factions are also following Felix A, as they believe something he did as a baby made him the “universe maker.” The story unfolds at a sprightly pace, while bringing in quantum theory, chaos theory, and especially the butterfly effect–that one small action can set off a chain of events lasting for hundreds of years. One of the more clever successes of the book is the creation of the competing San Franciscos–as opposed to one being “San Francisco as we know it” and another being strange, each version of the city has both familiar and unfamiliar attributes. In places, the science might not hold together perfectly, but the ride is so much fun that readers can quickly suspend disbelief. Finally, why is Felix searching for his alter anyway? He’s writing a mystery novel and wants to be sure Felix B hasn’t beaten him to it. The author pays homage to Felix’s inspiration, Agatha Christie, by assembling a wacky cast of suspects. This clever combination of mystery, science fiction and humor gives this title broad appeal.–Jamie Watson, Baltimore County Public Library, MD
GB Tran was born and raised in the United States. In this graphic memoir he returns to Vietnam to research his family’s history, especially their experiences of the Vietnam War and experiences adapting to life as immigrants living in the United States.
The book trailer is a great introduction to the book and its author.
Adult/High School–In Tran’s memoir of his parents’ life in Vietnam–and his own discovery of that story–theme, narrative, and art work together to create a deeply compelling graphic novel. Tran meditates on war, loss, and memory, but the overriding theme is the complexity, hardship, and reward of family life, a theme that finds full life in the author’s multi-layered narrative. Chapters narrated by Tran’s mother proceed chronologically from her own and her future husband’s childhoods under the Japanese and French occupations to their escape from Vietnam in 1975. In alternating chapters, narrated by Tran himself, the narrative travels in roughly reverse chronology, from his most recent trip to Vietnam in 2006 to his decision sometime in the 1990s to make his first trip. These chapters are interspersed with increasing layers of flashbacks by various relatives, which eventually overtake Tran’s narration entirely. This intricate structuring creates suspense and mystery, but its more important function is to highlight the way in which family history is constructed: layered, repetitive, nonlinear, contradictory, collaborative, and ultimately productive of both family and self-identity. Tran’s color scheme is equally complex, switching between black and white, desaturated, natural, and oversaturated color depending on the tone, narrator, and time period. His artwork–richly detailed but never overcrowded, realistic while allowing for abstraction, and expertly composed–wrings meaning out of the smallest detail. This novel could easily find a place in the classroom but its broad set of issues and graphic format should also appeal to a wide variety of teens.–Mark Flowers, John F. Kennedy Library, Solano County, CA
In September 2010, Dan Savage and Terry Miller posted a video on YouTube encouraging GLBT young people facing harassment and bullying to hope, to believe that life will get better. That first video spawned many, many others by celebrities and non-celebrities alike. If you haven’t visited yet, click over to the YouTube It Gets Better Project channel. The introductory video provides a good overview, and includes information about the book.
Already, publication of the book is increasing visibility and publicity for the project in mainstream media. For example, Time Magazine just published 10 Questions for Dan Savage, and I opened the March 25th Entertainment Weekly book section to find a half page devoted to the book and celebrity quotes to be found within.
Dan Savage will be the Opening General Session speaker at ALA Annual in New Orleans on Friday, June 24 at 4pm. This program immediately precedes the popular all-conference reception on the exhibit floor — if you can get to ALA early enough, it should be well worth attending.
Surely we can’t do enough to prevent the tragedy of teen suicide, and I hope every library serving teens will make this book available to their readers.
SAVAGE, Dan & Terry Miller, eds. It Gets Better: Coming Out, Overcoming Bullying, and Creating a Life Worth Living. 338p. Dutton. 2011. Tr $21.95. ISBN 978-0-525-95233-6. LC number unavailable.
Adult/High School–Adolescence can be a harsh and lonely journey for anyone, but the alienation and torment directed toward GBLTQ teens can be particularly soul crushing. Although the publicity surrounding the suicides of gay teens brings momentary attention to the issue, the dominant religious/political mores of current society make it very difficult to offer personal guidance and support to gay teens. Savage was particularly frustrated by this impasse until he came upon the idea of using YouTube to address teens directly. With his husband, Terry Miller, Savage posted a video clip with a simple message: “Hang in there, it gets better.” Less than a year later, the It Gets Better Project (www.itgetsbetter.org) has burst into a ringing chorus of affirmation, with video clips by President Barack Obama, openly gay Bishop Gene Robinson, Ellen DeGeneres, and countless famous and not-so-famous voices speaking out. The book is addictive, filled with many unique viewpoints, all recollecting the dark days of adolescence that preceded their adult transformations. Don’t listen when they tell you that homosexuality is wicked and unnatural, these voices say. Don’t believe it when they tell you that you will never have a family or friends. And certainly don’t allow yourself to think that your life is so bleak that you would be better off dead, because there is so much happiness ahead that you won’t want to miss. This book is a must-have for middle and high school libraries. In fact, the It Gets Better Project is encouraging people to buy a copy to donate to their local schools, so many librarians may find themselves gifted with this inspirational volume.–Diane Colson, New Port Richey Library, FL
Yesterday I had the opportunity to booktalk to our three 11th grade English classes. Although the last Friday before Spring Break may not be the ideal time to cover a class, I was thrilled to have the chance.
The last time I booktalked to these same classes was right before Thanksgiving vacation, and you can read about that experience here. I tried to highlight completely different titles this time, all recent adult fiction and nonfiction with teen appeal.
I also presented fewer books per section than I did in November, saving more time for students to talk about what they had been reading and recommend books to each other. And of course, I left time at the end of each period for browsing and checking out books.
My library has limited shelf space so we usually only carry one copy of each book. I make exceptions for very popular titles, such as Room (4), The Help (3) , Hunger Games (3), The Tiger’s Wife (2), and Little Princes (4). I mention this because there were several titles that students asked for during the browsing time that were already checked out, and I was not always able to persuade them to try something else. This is one of the reasons that I am looking forward to having a downloadable ebook collection in my library (hopefully by fall) — at which point this should become a non-issue.
I have starred the books that were checked out. (Quick reminder–this is an all-girls school.)
My booktalks:
Section 1
Room by Emma Donoghue * (3)
House of Tomorrow by Peter Bognanni *
Horns by Joe Hill *
Breaking Night by Liz Murray *
The Book of Tomorrow by Cecilia Ahern *
Half Broke Horses (& The Glass Castle * recap) by Jeannette Walls
Section 2
Swamplandia! by Karen Russell *
The Tiger’s Wife by Tea Obreht * (2)
How I Killed Pluto and Why it had it coming by Mike Brown *
Crave Radiance by Elizabeth Alexander
The Bells by Richard Harvell *
Section 3
Little Princes by Conor Grennan *
Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake by Aimee Bender
When We Were Strangers by Pamela Schoenewaldt
The Lock Artist by Steve Hamilton *
Juliet by Anne Fortier
Books recommended by students:
The Help (Kathryn Stockett)
Water for Elephants (Sara Gruen)
Anything by David Sedaris, especially Me Talk Pretty One Day
Never Let Me Go (Kazuo Ishiguro)
Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother (long conversation ensued – must purchase!)
Robert Parker & Dashiell Hammett mysteries
The Things They Carried (Tim O’Brien)
Agatha Christie, especially And Then There Were None
Unbroken (Laura Hillenbrand — checked out already)
Hunger Games trilogy
The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks (E. Lockhart)
Truman Capote, especially Breakfast at Tiffany’s and short stories
Cutting for Stone (Abraham Verghese)
The Invisible Man (H.G. Wells)
Nothing (Janne Teller)
Lullaby (Church Palahniuk)
Triangle: the fire that changed America (Dave Von Drehle)
127 Hours: Between a Rock and a Hard Place (Aron Ralston)
Dead Beat (and entire Dresden Files series by Jim Butcher)
A Separate Country (Robert Hicks)
A Special Place (maybe the Peter Straub? not certain)
anything and everything by Ellen Hopkins
Special Topics in Calamity Physics (Marisha Pessl)
Every Boy’s Got One (Meg Cabot)
Lolita (Vladimir Nabokov)
The Lie (Chad Kultgen)
Scott Pilgrim graphic novel series (Bryan Lee O’Malley)
Before I Fall (Lauren Oliver)
Other books checked out by students:
The Glass Castle (Jeannette Walls)
So Much Pretty (by Cara Hoffman — watch for an upcoming blog review!)
Nothing (Janne Teller)
Finny (Justin Kramon)
On Writing (Stephen King)
Freakonomics (Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner)
The Shock Doctrine (Naomi Klein)
The Lover’s Dictionary (David Levithan)
The Invisible Gorilla (Christopher Chabris and Daniel Simons
Water for Elephants (Sara Gruen)
Autobiography of Mark Twain, Vol. 1
Zeitoun (Dave Eggers)
Little Bee (Chris Cleave)
Sing you Home (Jodi Picoult)
The Emperor of All Maladies (Siddhartha Mukherjee)
The Things They Carried (Tim O’Brien)
City of Thieves (David Benioff)
The Kite Runner (Khaled Hosseini)
Titles fought over, or recommended more than once: Room (could have checked out several more)
Horns
Unbroken
The Help
Water for Elephants
Finally, I had planned to booktalk Among Others by Jo Walton, but both of our copies were checked out earlier in the week. Next time!
Today it is my pleasure to present a review of Kings of Colorado, a book that has flown under the radar up to this point, despite strong reviews.
There is a revealing conversation with David Hilton on the Simon & Schuster website. Hilton used to be a middle school teacher, so he knows young people. And it is interesting that he cites Stephen King’s short story, “The Body,” as one of his influences. Some readers have likened Kings of Colorado to Stand by Me, the 1986 movie based on that story.
HILTON, David E. Kings of Colorado. 273p. S & S. 2011. Tr $24. ISBN 978-1-4391-8382-3. LC number unavailable.
Adult/High School–William Sheppard is 13 when he stabs his father. The man does not die, and his mother is not protected by the act or aftermath: Will is bused off to Swope Ranch Boy’s Reformatory in the wilds of Colorado for two years. Those two years are described in horrific detail in short chapters packed with brutal and realistic action. Will finds himself in the company of mostly innocent and definitely vulnerable boys, boys in impossible situations who tried to protect a mother or a sibling, or who simply got into basic everyday trouble. But at least two of them are seriously sociopathic, and along with the abusive prison guards and warden, Will and his friends are wrenchingly shattered, forever defined by the almost-constant yet always-surprising assaults. As Will’s friend Mickey says, “We’ve gotten used to this place. Become comfortable. … along the way we’ve made friends….And then, when we aren’t expecting it, this place rakes us right back into reality…Rips our heart out just for fun.” Gorgeously written, evocative, profound, and downright powerful, this is a perfect book for teens. The adult Will takes up less than 30 pages of the entire book, the premise being that the narrative is his written experiences and memories. Set in the ‘60’s with a focus on breaking horses, the psychological insight crashes through any and all barriers of time and place. As Will says about his desperately scribbled pages: “Terrible and cathartic.”–Amy Cheney, Alameda County Library, Juvenile Hall, CA
Angela Carstensen is Head Librarian and an Upper School Librarian at Convent of the Sacred Heart in New York City. Angela served on the Alex Awards committee for four years, chairing the 2008 committee, and chaired the first YALSA Award for Excellence in Nonfiction for Young Adult committee in 2009. Recently, she edited Outstanding Books for the College Bound: Titles and Programs for a New Generation (ALA Editions, 2011). Contact her via Twitter @AngeReads.
